Jurors in Novak trial ask for definition of 'reasonable doubt'

2nd request for testimony from defense witness

MONTICELLO — It was the second day of jury deliberation without a decision in the case of accused wife killer Paul Novak. And it began with the jury asking for the definition of "reasonable doubt" and concluded just after it asked about "murder in the first degree."

MONTICELLO — It was the second day of jury deliberation without a decision in the case of accused wife killer Paul Novak. And it began with the jury asking for the definition of "reasonable doubt" and concluded just after it asked about "murder in the first degree."

That range of requests — hinting at Novak's innocence or guilt — typified the day in Sullivan County Court in this second month of the trial, a day that also included one juror being escorted to a funeral.

Novak is accused of murdering his estranged wife Catherine and then burning her western Sullivan County home to cover up his crime and collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance. He's charged with first degree murder, arson, grand larceny and insurance fraud.

For the second time in two days, the jury of eight men and four women asked for the testimony of defense witness Thomas Decker. He was the landlord of Novak and his then-girlfriend turned star prosecution witness, Michelle LaFrance, on the night before the alleged murder, Dec. 12, 2008. Decker had testified that he didn't hear or see anyone that night, when the other Novak friend-turned-prosecution witness, Scott Sherwood, said he came to Paul Novak's home to mix the chloroform that was supposed to be used to kill Catherine. Decker also testified that he didn't see anyone return to the Long Island home on the following morning of Dec. 13 — just hours after Novak and Sherwood were alleged to have gone to Catherine Novak's home in the western Sullivan hamlet of Lava, where Novak is alleged to have killed her.

Later in the day, the jury asked to hear the testimony of Novak's paramedic partner and prosecution witness, Will Gonzalez, who said that a month or two before the alleged crime, Novak told him "Do you know the best way to commit the perfect crime? Fire, because you get rid of all the evidence." The jury then requested autopsy reports of Catherine and phone records of Sherwood and his wife, Elise Hanlon, who testified that Paul Novak told her he strangled Catherine.

Because the jurors in the morning asked Sullivan County Court Judge Frank LaBuda to read the lengthy definition of reasonable doubt, some court observers felt the jury was headed toward an acquittal. But once the jury asked about first-degree murder, they weren't so sure.

LaBuda has issued a gag order on the attorneys for both sides, and the families of Paul and Catherine Novak — regulars at the trial — did not want to comment.